Russia has claimed there is a 'high degree of certainty' that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.

'It is highly likely that Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi was eliminated in an airstrike of the Russian Air Force on a militant command post in a southern suburb of the city of Raqqa,' said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov.

Moscow said last week its forces may have killed the secretive Islamic State leader, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were sceptical.

Russia has claimed there is a 'high degree of certainty' that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured in 2014) is dead

This is not the first time the notorious ISIS chief's death has been reported, however.

In June Syrian state television claimed al-Baghdadi was killed in an airstrike.

Al-Baghdadi, a hate preacher who has a $25million bounty on his head, was believed to be hiding out in the desert outside the besieged city of Mosul in northern Iraq.

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In January it was reported the leader had been 'critically injured in airstrikes in northern Iraq.'

The Pentagon said in December it believed that the ISIS chief was alive, despite repeated efforts by the US-led coalition to take out the jihadist group leader.

'We do think Baghdadi is alive and is still leading ISIL and we are obviously doing everything we can to track his movements,' Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told CNN at the time.

'It is highly likely that Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi was eliminated in an airstrike of the Russian Air Force on a militant command post in a southern suburb of the city of Raqqa,' said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov

'If we get the opportunity, we certainly would take advantage of any opportunity to deliver him the justice he deserves,' he said.

'We're doing everything we can. This is something we're spending a lot of time on.'

According to an official Iraqi government document, al-Baghdadi was born in Samarra in Iraq in 1971.

He apparently joined the insurgency that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and spent time in an American military prison.

This latest development comes as the leaning al-Habda minaret that has towered over Mosul for 850 years lay in ruins, demolished by retreating Islamic State militants.

This latest development comes as the leaning al-Habda minaret (pictured in April) that has towered over Mosul for 850 years lay in ruins

'In the early morning, I climbed up to my house roof and was stunned to see the Hadba minaret had gone,' Nashwan, a day-labourer living in Khazraj neighborhood near the mosque, said by phone. 'I felt I had lost a son of mine.'

His words echoed the shock and anger of many over the destruction of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque along with its famous minaret, known affectionately as 'the hunchback' by Iraqis.

The demolition came on Wednesday night as Iraqi forces closed on the mosque, which carried enormous symbolic importance for Islamic State.

Its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi used it in 2014 to declare a 'caliphate' as militants seized swathes of of Syria and Iraq.

According to an official Iraqi government document, al-Baghdadi was born in Samarra in Iraq in 1971. Pictured, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov